Rake type unloading mechanism



Sept. 6, 1960 Filed March 5, 1958 M. J. SPENO ET AL RAKE TYPE UNLOADING MECHANISM S Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VENTOR E ANTHONY I 520w MAET/N J 5PE/V0 Sept. 6. 1960 Filed March 5, 1958 M. J. SPENO ETAL RAKE TYPE UNLOADING MECHANISM a Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR ATTORNEY S Sept. 6, 1960 M. J. SPENO ET AL 2,951,692

RAKE TYPE UNLOADING MECHANISM Filed March 5, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 l N VE NTOR ANTHONY 7' Bea/v0 MAET/N J 5PN0 ATTORNEYS United States Patent 2,951,692 RAKE TYPE UNLOADING MECHANISM Martin J. Speno, Syracuse, 'N.Y. (103 Sunset Drive, East Syracuse, N.Y.) and Anthony T. Bruno, Westfield, NJ.

(312 Berkeley Drive, Syracuse, N.Y.)

Filed Mar. 5, 1958, Ser. No. 719,429

2 Claims. (Cl. 262-8) This invention relates to a railroad hopper car unload ing mechanism for sweeping the contents of the car across the opening in a hopper or chute thereof and for urging the material into said chute.

In particular the invention relates to a novel unloader mechanism which is preferably movably supported on the hopper car for operative positioning over any of the several discharge hoppers or chutes thereof. Such mechanism in accordance with the invention comprises a swingably mounted or oscillatable rakehead which moves about a horizontal axis in sweeping engagement with the car contents. In addition the invention includes the concept of projecting the said head selectively in a direction radially of its sweeping movement to provide a feeding action thereof as the level of the car contents varies. It is afurther object of the invention to independently control the said sweeping movements and the said projecting movement in such manner that the rakehead may be positioned in any of its angular sweeping positions and radially projected, whereby it may be caused to urge the car contents directly down the surface of one of the chutes and toward or through the' discharge opening thereof to clear said opening when same is blocked or obstructed by heavily packed material.

Preferably, the rakehead is mounted on a frame which is swingably supported about a horizontal axis on a sweeper carriage or trolley, the trolley being movable along a trackway,-and a power unit carried on said swingable frame is associated with the rakehead in a manner to extend or retract the same in a generally radial direction with regard to its swinging movement.

The angular movement of the rakehead is independently produced by means of a separate power unit connected between the rakehead and the said sweeper carriage or trolley, the connection of said power means to the sweeper head being radially spaced from the axis about which it swings and preferably being provided by a suitably disposed crank arm.

The invention is particularly adapted for use in the unloading of hopper cars which are used in ballast cleaning operations to receive the dirt extracted from the ballast. In such usage, the dirt contains a large amount of earth which may be of considerably varying characteristics and which tends to pack in many instances into a rather solid mass incident to the jolting of the car in its entirety as the latter moves along the railway tracks, and also incident to its own weight. Unless some suitable unloading means is provided it will be apparent that material of this type will tend to become a relatively solid mass, which will not normally flow by gravity through the hopper discharge openings.

While the invention, as above mentioned, is particularly adapted and intended for use in overcoming this pardon-- lar problem, it will be quite apparent that it is also readily adapted for use in connection with various types of materials and in unloading various types of hoppers or load-carrying vehicles. Therefore, the invention is not 2,951,692 Patented Sept. 6, 196Q be more readily apparent from consideration of the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 represents a side elevation of a typical hopper car having the invention applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary enlarged sectional view on the line 2--2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged plan view of the unloading mechanism and its supporting carriage or trolley, the hopper car being shown fragmentarily;

Fig. 4 is a similarly-enlarged side elevation of the unloading mechanism taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 55 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a section on the line 6-6 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 7 is an enlarged section on the line 7--7 of Fig. 3.

Referring now in detail to the accompanying drawings, the reference character A therein designates the body of a generally conventional hopper car having a frame B supported on wheels C for movement along a railroad track D. Disposed at longitudinally spaced intervals along the bottom of the car are suitably arranged hoppers generally designated E formed with usual inclined floors leading toward a discharge opening which is normally maintained closed by means of a hinged door or closure F, each said door F being hinged at F so that it may be swung about a horizontal axis of said hinge toward open or closed position. If desired, the respective doors F may be opened or closed by individually controllable conventional hydraulic piston and cylinder units, each designated G, and each of said units being connected between its associated door F and a stationary bracket H supported from the car body A. The foregoing structure is generally conventional and is shown and described merely to illustrate the preferred mode of application of the invention.

. It will be seen that the hopper car body A opens upwardly and that the upper edges of its opposite sides are rigidly interconnected by suitable transverse braces in the form of I-beams 10 extending. thereacross at regular longitudinal intervals. Suspended from these beams 10 on opposite sides of the car by means of the hangers 11 are relatively parallel longitudinal rails also in the form of I-beams 12, which provide a suitable supporting track for a rigid carriage or trolley structure designated in its entirety by the reference character T. This trolley in the preferred embodiment comprises a rigid rectangular frame including rigid channel irons 13 interconnected at their opposite ends respectively by a. cross-brace 14 and by a cross-shaft 15. It will be seen that the feeding ends or end. portions 16 of the respective channel irons 13 extend downwardly diagonally from the remaining portions of the channel irons 13 to support the cross shaft 15 at their free ends below the guide rails 12-12 and thus free of interference therewith.

Swingably mounted on the shaft 15 is a rigid frame J comprising the parallel tubular members 2020 rigidly interconnected by the diagonal braces 21-21 and cross braces 22 and 23. A tubular bearing sleeve 24 extending across and rigidly connected to the rear ends of the members 20 is journalled on shaft 15 and provides a suitable means swingably mounting the frame for angular movement about the shaft 15.

Such angularmovement may be caused by means of a conventional double acting hydraulic unit which is shown as including a cylinder 25 having one end pivoted at 26 to a bracket 27 on the cross brace 14 of the trolley or carriage T. The piston of the hydraulic unit has its movable piston rod 28 connected to the swingable frame aforementioned at a location eccentric to the axis of the shaft 15 to produce swinging of the frame I responsive to extension or contraction of the hydraulic unit. Such last mentioned connection is preferably formed by a pair of relatively spaced crank arms 2-9-29 projecting rearwardly and downwardly from the tubular bearing sleeve 24, the said crank arms 29 being rigidly secured to the bearing sleeve and being further braced against movement relative to the swingable frame by means of the diagonal braces 30-30 extending between the respective arms and the respective tubular members 20-20.

A rakehead or sweep generally designated R of suitable structure includes a number of suitably formed rake tines or teeth 31 fixed on a rigid cross bar 32 which is carried at the ends of the rod or shaft members 33-33. These members 33 are respectively slidably telescopically received in the tubular'members 20-20 of the frame to guide the rakehead R for generally radial adjustment relative to the axis of the shaft 15 about which the rakehead and its supporting frame are swingable. Such radial or extension movement of the rakehead is caused by power means which may best assume the form of a further double-acting hydraulic piston and cylinder unit, the cylinder 34 of which has its rear end pivotally connected at 35 to the frame cross bar 23. The piston which operates within said cylinder 34 has its usual piston rod 37 provided with a clevis 38 at its free end which is connected to a cross head 39 supported between and rigidly connected to the respective slidably supported shafts 33-33. Preferably the connection 4-0 between the clevis 38 and the cross head 3-9 is in the form of a pivot to prevent transmission of bending stresses to the piston rod 37 incident to theimposition of unbalanced forces against opposite ends of the rakehead R in operation.

As aforementioned, the rake tines or teeth 31 and, in fact, the rakehead R in its entirety may be of varying constructions within the scope of the invention, depending in part upon the particular nature and characteristics of the material to be handled. In the specific form shown the cross bar 32 of the rake is in the form of a generally flat metal plate and the teeth 31 are formed in two relatively oppositely diverging rows having their 7 converging ends rigidly connected to the opposite sides of the cross bar 32. Such teeth 31 may be further strengthened and secured against deflection by means of diagonal braces 42 rigidly connected between the diverging outer end portions of the respective teeth 31 and the plate 32.

By reference to Figs. 2 and 7, it will be seen that the sweeper carriage or trolley T is movably supported on the rails 12-12 by means of rollers 15' rotatably carried by the respective upwardly projecting flanges of the channelled frame members 13-. These flanges receive between them the respective rails and it will be seen that the rollers 15 project between the upper and lower flanges of the I-beam structure of the respective rails 12 on opposite sides of each rail for rolling movement along the lower flanges of the respective ra-ils.

In the operation of the mechanism herein described the carriage or trolley T may be positioned longitudinally at any desired location on the car for urging material into any one of the several longitudinally spaced hoppers E. If desired, such movement and positioning of the trolley may be facilitated by means of a cable winch including a Winch drum 43- rotatably supported on a chassis 44 at one end of the car body A. As shown in Figs. 1, and 6, a cable '45 may be wound several times around the drum 43 with one of its ends extending from the drum and connected to the adjacent end portion of the trolley T. The other end portion of the cable 45 extends from the winch drum 43 around a roller 46 rotatably supported at the opposite end of the car from the drum 43 and thence connected to the forward end of the trolley T. Thus, obviously by rotating the winch 43 in the proper direction sleeve and extending radially to said axis, said rakeheadas by means of a reversible electric motor 47, it is possible to produce movement of the carriage or trolley T in either direction along the rails 12-12.

When the carriage is stationed in the desired position the hydraulic unit 25 may be actuated through any usual control means not illustrated, either to cause an oscillating or swinging movement of the frame members 20 and rakehead R in sweeping engagement with the contents of the car body-A, or alternatively may be utilized to position and maintain the frame members 20 and rakehead R at any desired angle of adjustment. During such sweeping action, and as the contents of the car is gradually swept toward and urged through the discharge opening controlled by one of the hopper doors F, the rakehead may be extended by increments in a radial direction by actuation of the hydraulic piston and cylinder unit 34. Thus, the piston and cylinder unit 34 may effect a more or less progressive feeding action of the rake head.

In addition, where one of the hoppers E becomes clogged or obstructed, the carriage T of the mechanism and the angular position of the rakehead frame members 20-20 may be so adjusted as to bring these members 20 into general alignment with the hopper door F, whereupon the cylinder 34 may be actuated to thrust the rakehead R against and thereby remove the obstruction if desired, forcing it completely through one of the hopper outlet openings.

In this application there is shown and described only the preferred embodiment of the invention simply by way of illustration of the preferred mode of carrying out the invention. However, we recognize that the invention is subject to various obvious modifications and that its several details may be modified in various manners, all without departing from our inventive concept as defined in the accompanying claims. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are to be considered as merely illustrative in nature and by no means as restrictive.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

1. An unloading mechanism comprising a rigid supporting structure, a rigid frame pivotally connected to said structure for angular movement about a horizontal axis, a first power means interconnected between said frame and said structure for moving the frame angularly about said axis, a rakehead carried by said frame for generally radial movement relative to said axis, and a second power means operatively interconnected between said rakehead and said frame for producing and con trolling said radial movement, said supporting structure includes a horizontal shaft defining said axis and said frame includes a bearing sleeve journalled on said shaft, a pair of relatively spaced tubular members fixed to said including a pair of supporting members telescopically associated with said spaced tubular members respectively, and said second power means comprises a linearly extensible and contractible hydraulic unit interconnected between said bearing sleeve and said rakehead.

2. The combination defined in claim 1 in which said hydraulic unit extends parallel to and is centered between the respectivetubular frame members, said unit including relative movable piston and cylinder members, respectively pivotally connected to the sleeve and to the rakehead for angular movement relative to said sleeve and said rakehead parallel to said axis.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 838,049 Nixon Dec. 11, 1906 1,975,636 Fildes Oct. 2,1934 2,389,068 Loughway Nov. 13, 1945 2,406,546 Kinney et a1 Aug.'27, 1946 2,798,712 Ball July 9, 1957 

